CHAPTER TWO

Of Dead Owls and Dragon's Bile

Harry pushed his trunk round to the back door, and hesitantly peered through the glass. Fred and George were sitting at one end of the long table, shovelling in great forkfuls of bacon and egg. Several chickens had wandered in and were clucking happily at the twins' feet. A very weary looking Mr Weasley shuffled in wrapped in a brown tartan dressing gown, yawning.

"Mornin' boys," he mumbled, pulling the Daily Prophet out from under a plate of half-eaten crumpets.

"Mornin' Dad," the twins mumbled back.

Ron appeared in the doorway. He looked terrible. His red hair was sticking up in all directions, and he peered out from under very puffy eyelids.

"Whasser breakfast?"

"Food," answered George, promptly.

He received a lazy swipe on the back of his head.

Harry chose this moment to open the door. "Hello all!"

"Ah, hello, Harry, my lad!" cried Fred, as though he had only just noticed him.

"Um, hello - Fred?"

"Come on in, Harry," said Ron, lowering himself gingerly into a chair. He groaned. "I swear I have never, ever felt this bad in years."

"Serves you right for overdoing the elderflower wine last night," muttered Mr Weasley, leafing through the greased pages of the Daily Prophet. "Yes, come in, Harry, make yourself at home."

Harry couldn't suppress a snigger. "Elderflower wine?"

"Yeah, well," said Ron, waving his hand dismissively, "that stuff packs a hard one if you haven't eaten anything all day."

"Yeah, right," laughed George.

"You ate more than anyone at dinner, Ronniekins," said Fred, with a wink at Harry.

"Shut the hell up," was Ron's feeble reply. "My head feels like the Quidditch World Cup is going on inside it."

"And don't you start!" Mrs Weasley had entered. Didn't miss a trick, that woman. "We never talk like that at home, Ron, so I don't know where you boys pick it up. Ah, hello, Harry, dear! Cup of tea?"

"Um, yes, thankyou."

Mrs Weasley beamed at him, and began pointing her wand at various utensils.

"No Hermione yet?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head, and then winced. "No. Said I'd messed up her revision plan, or something, and she couldn't come until Friday."

"Revision? We haven't even got back to school yet!"

"Exactly. Merlin, she's weird."

"Ron!"

"Sorry, Mum."

"Go and dunk your head in the water butt, lad," suggested Mr Weasley. "That's what I always used to do."

"Better still, drink this." Mrs Weasley plonked in front of Ron a glass of a horrible looking green liquid that was smoking slightly. "It'll clear your head out in no time."

Harry smiled to himself as Ron's face turned as green as the concoction in front of him.

"No thanks, Mum. I might pass."

"Drink it!"

"But Mum - "

"Oh well, if you want to go around all day with a raging headache then that's fine! Oh, look, Harry, you brought Amelia in with you."

Harry turned round to see a tiny white goat lying on the stone floor, with its head against his trunk.

"Um - should I take it out?"

"No, leave her there, dear, she'll be all right."

Suddenly, Harry remembered Percy's owl, lying in a heap at the bottom of Hedwig's cage.

"Ron," he hissed, across the table. "Ron!"

Ron lazily opened one eye and grunted.

"I think there's something wrong with Percy's owl. I couldn't wake it up at home, so I brought it with me, just in - um - in case. It's either concussed or dead, I reckon."

Ron didn't move a muscle, but an expression of frantic panic flooded his eyes. "Oh, Merlin! He's going to eat me alive. Wait, are you sure?"

"Well, he looks dead, and if he's alive he's slept through a transportation spell. Doesn't look good, does it?"

Ron edged forward in his chair and peered over at the owl. "Hide it!" he said. "Don't let Perce see, for goodness' sake!"

"Don't let Perce see what?" interrupted George, excitedly. "What have you done, Ronniekins?"

"Shut up, Forge. I haven't done anything."

"You're an apalling liar."

Another shriek halted any argument that might have followed.

"FRED! GEORGE! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"

The twins pushed their chairs back, and made a run for it out of the back door, grabbing a piece of toast each as they went.

"Gotta go, see you later, boys!"

"MUM!"

"Ginny, what on earth's the matter?"

"MUM, they've done it AGAIN!"

Ron massaged his temples and gazed regretfully at the smouldering potion in front of him. "Reckon I might need this after all."

"GINNY! WHAT is with all the YELLING?"

"Go away, Perce!"

"I'm trying to have a nice, peaceful lie-in with my wife, thankyou very much!"

Ron started nodding frantically. "Yeah, I'm definitely going to need this." He knocked it back in one gulp. Harry watched with interest as his ears turned red and began to emit smoke. Ron clutched the table and wheezed.

"What's in this stuff?" he gasped, through watering eyes.

Mr Weasley put down the paper and reached for the teapot. "Oh, essence of lemonroot, some powdered gorgon's tail - oh, and your mother's secret ingredient - "

"Which is?"

"Dragon's bile. Work's a treat. Charlie always brings her back a bottle or two when he comes home."

Both Harry and Ron cringed.

Mrs Weasley came storming in again, rolling up her sleeves. "Where are those twins? i'm going to run after them hell for leather to the end of the world if necessary!"

"What have they done, Molly?"

"You don't want to know," she answered, grimly, tearing the back door open with such tremendous force that the knob came off in her hand. She tossed it onto a cupboard top and stalked into the garden.

Ron gesticulated wildly at Harry once Mr Weasley had taken up the paper again. He pointed to Hedwig's cage, and then to the door that led out into the hallway.

"Surely Percy's up here?" whispered Harry, when they were safely outside the kitchen with the cage.

"Um, of a sort, yes."

"What?"

"He was up half the flamin' night, so he damn well ought to be asleep."

"With Ginny screaming the place down every five minutes? Why was he up half the night?"

"We don't talk about it," Ron replied, gravely. "I'm scarred."

Harry knotted his forehead. Then light dawned. "Oh, I understand."

"I sincerely hope you don't. Take my advice, Harry - if you ever end up living with a married couple, don't take the bedroom right underneath theirs."

"OK. But tell me, Ron, why are we standing in the middle of your hallway clutching a bird cage with an apparently dead owl in it?"

"I'm going to try to stash it in my room for a while, until Hermione gets here."

"Hermione?"

"She's a walking encyclopedia, Harry. Let's hope she can do something!"

"Won't Percy actually notice that he's missing an owl?"

"You've got to be kidding! He's got a week off from work, which means Penny, Penny, Penny." He shivered at the memory. "So hopefully he won't need Granville before Friday."

Harry laughed aloud, dropping his half of the cage. He caught it again just before it hit the floor. "Granville? Merlin, Ron, your animals have some bizarre names."

"Hey, don't blame me. None of them are mine, it's all my crazy family."

They were half way up the stairs by now, their progress distinctly hindered by the constant twists and turns. By the sound of the yells coming from the garden, the twins had been ambushed and violently reprimanded. Harry mourned the loss of witnessing the scene.

"Damn it, Harry, it's Penny!"

"Where?"

"In the bathroom! Back, back!"

"I can't go back, my foot's stuck!"

"She's going to see us!" Ron was hopping up and down on one leg in desperation.

"She'll hear you before she sees us, shut UP!"

The bathroom door opened, and Penny crossed the landing, still in her long shirt. Ginny's head poked out of a doorway along the corridor. "Penny! Watch the frame!" she whispered.

"What?"

"The door frame. Fred and George have jinxed all the bedroom doors."

Harry and Ron crouched uncomfortably on the stairs, ducking their heads down.

"What do I do?" Penny was asking.

"Use your wand."

"It's inside!"

Ginny tiptoed across to her, wrapped in a towel. She pointed hers at the doorknob.

"Finite incantatem!"

"Cheers Gin!"

"No problem."

Penny's bedroom door clicked shut, and Ginny turned to go back down the hallway - until a small thud and a cough caught her attention. An unmistakable quiff of messy red hair was sticking up over the line of the floor beside the stairs. She leaned over the bannister.

"Ron? Harry? What the heck are you doing?"

"Shut up, Ginny," hissed Ron. "We're trying to get up to my room without Perce seeing."

"Is that Granville?" asked Ginny, noticing the pile of brown feathers inside the cage they were clutching.

"What's left of him, yes," replied Harry, with a tentative laugh.

"What happened to him?"

"Tell you later, just help us get him upstairs quick," muttered Ron, passing the cage up to Ginny.

"I'm only wearing a towel, Ron, I've only got one free hand!"

"One's enough, now just take it! My back is breaking down here!"

Ron groaned as he unfolded his six feet into a standing position, almost losing his balance as Harry reached for his arm to help himself up.

"Hush, you two, he'll hear!" warned Ginny, steadying the cage against the bannister while she hoisted up her towel.

"Gin! you'll drop it! Give it here!"

"I can't, I need my hands for the towel. I've got nothing on under here!"

"Didn't need to know that, Gin, come on!"

"OK, I've got the cage. Not the towel, but got the cage."

"Oi, Harry, take the other side," ordered Ron. "My foot's stuck again."

"OK, seriously, Ron, I need some help here," whispered Ginny, frantically.

"I'm busy, ask Harry." He sat on the top step trying to manoeuvre his ankle out of the railings.

"I'm sure Harry doesn't want to hold my towel up, Ron!"

"Neither do I, particularly. Can't you do it?"

"No - the cage will fall if I take my hands away."

Harry shut his eyes for a minute while he made a quick decision.

"It's OK, Gin." He slid his arm round her shoulder.

"Thanks!" He was relieved that she was too occupied in trying to lower the cage to the floor to notice the rather fetching shade of red his face had just gone.

"OK, I might go and put some clothes on now," she said, smiling.

What was that in her eyes just then? Harry wondered. Laughter? Amusement? She'd have died of embarrassment a couple of years ago after that. But then, she'd changed last year, a lot. He'd noticed it ever since Hallowe'en, when he'd accidentally got himself locked in a cupboard in McGonagall's room without his wand. Ginny had let him out but she'd forgotten to hold the door while she hauled him to his feet, so it had shut tight before either of them had chance to climb out, with Ginny's wand on the outside. They'd been stuck there for two hours before Hermione found them. They hadn't talked about anything special, just things. But still, there had been something about her that night. He couldn't put his finger on it. Yes, that had been an interesting two hours to say the least.

"Oi, stop gawping at my sister and give me a hand!" Ron poked him in the back and pointed to the cage. Harry realised he'd been staring at Ginny's departing back while he'd been lost in thought.